The Italian Senate on Thursday approved 169-90 a bill that would regulate assisted reproductive technology, which has been unregulated in the country for several years, BBC News reports (BBC News, 12/11). The Italian House in June 2002 approved the measure, which would ban couples from using donated sperm or eggs for ART, deny single women access to ART and permit doctors to conscientiously object to involvement in the ART process (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 6/21/2002). The proposed law, which would be the most restrictive in Europe, would limit ART to sterile heterosexual couples who are married or who live together, effectively prohibiting same-sex couples, single women and women beyond child-bearing age from using ART. The measure would prohibit the use of prenatal screening for abnormalities or genetic disorders, even for couples with a history of genetic disease (Gee, ANSA-English Media Service, 12/11). The measure also would limit to three the number of eggs that could be harvested and fertilized at any one time and would require that all three eggs be implanted at the same time, according to the Los Angeles Times. In addition, women cannot refuse implantation after eggs have already been fertilized, the Los Angeles Times reports (Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, 12/12). The bill also bans doctors from freezing embryos and using them for scientific research. Existing frozen embryos, of which there are about 24,000 in the country, would be put up for "adoption," and frozen embryo depositories would be closed (ANSA-English Media Service, 12/11). The bill would impose punishments on violators, including jail terms of between 10 and 20 years for scientists who perform reproductive cloning or manipulate human embryos, according to the AP/Boston Globe (Winfield, AP/Boston Globe, 12/12). In addition, doctors found using donated sperms or eggs could be fined up to about $700,000 and those found using ART for same-sex couples or single women could be fined up to about $500,000. The bill now goes back to the House for final approval.

Reaction
Liberal members of parliament and most female lawmakers have said that the bill places women's health at risk and would deny couples many of the fertility treatment options available in other European countries. The law would affect a "huge number" of Italians, because sterility affects 20% of couples in the country, according to ANSA-English Media Service (ANSA-English Media Service, 12/11). Some critics of the bill said that it could be the "first step" toward making abortion illegal in Italy, Reuters/New York Times reports (Reuters/New York Times, 12/12). Democratic Left Sen. Gavino Angius, whose party is the largest in the opposition, said, "[T]his law contains sections that are simply inhumane with the scarcest respect for human beings. It is truly an awful law" (ANSA-English Media Service, 12/10). However, supporters of the bill said that it respects the rights of human embryos, "preserves the family as the fundamental social unit" and ends the decades during which ART remained unregulated, according to ANSA-English Media Service (ANSA-English Media Service, 12/11). "This law says 'Enough!' to the abuses and recognizes that an embryo is a person and as such must be protected from the point of conception," Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, a senator from the Forza Italia party, said (Reuters/New York Times, 12/12). Ermanno Greco of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at Rome's European Hospital said that the bill would cut off scientific research in the country and "prevent scientists from working on some of the main trends in fertility research: embryos as sources of stem cells and genetic investigations to prevent diseases." Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia said that "too much faith has probably been placed in embryonic stem cell research, which up until now has not yielded the hoped-for results" (ANSA-English Media Service, 12/10).